Wise Men Say
by Vermonster
Summary: Wise men say only fools rush in ... and Harvey Spector was no fool. But Spencer Avery was nothing like any woman he had ever met.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing, but I wish I did... I totally wish I owned Harvey Spector (And Seeley Booth as well... now that I think about it.)

For those of you that read my other story, this should come as no surprise... I love Harvey too much not to give him an O.C.

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><p>"Wise men say only fools rush in<br>but I can't help, falling in love with you."  
>Elvis.<p>

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><p>"No," Harvey Spector sighed the moment Mike Ross walked in to his office. The young associate had not even started talking yet, but Harvey knew what the kid wanted and he still refused to do it.<p>

"But I haven't even asked yet," Mike complained turning to look at his boss with a confused look on his face. "You don't even know what this is about."

"Sure I do," Harvey said with a nod as he stood up from his desk, he buttoned his suit jacket before he slipped his hands in his pant pockets and walked around his desk so that he was standing closer to his associate. "This is about your friend, the one that is getting a divorce? And I'm saying no, I will not take her case."

"But why not?" Mike asked, not understanding why his boss was so against taking his friend's case. Harvey was always saying that he didn't care about other people, but Mike had been watching him since he had started working at Pearson Harden and it was clear that as much as he tried not to Harvey did care about other people besides himself. And Mike knew that if Harvey would just read over the details of this case his boss would change his mind.

"Because divorce cases never help," Harvey said with a shrug as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I am the best closer in the city, I did not get here by taking small divorce cases. If they weren't ready to be married and stay married they should have never gone through the whole white dress thing to begin with."

"But she was ready," Mike stressed, standing up for his friend. "She just didn't know what he was really like. That is not her fault." Harvey scoffed and reached behind him, pulling a stack of files out from behind his back and handing them out to Mike. "If you just read through the facts of this case I know you would take it," Mike muttered, not moving forward to grab the files in Harvey's still outstretched hand. "Just give it a chance."

"What I would like to give a chance is for you to give these bylaws a chance," Harvey said, waving his hand back and forth so that the files caught Mike's attention. "I need you to know everything that they say before we talk merger with the client this afternoon. That means you need to get on that now." Mike sighed and walked forward to grab the files. When Harvey wasn't looking he slipped a small file onto his desk, hoping that his boss would find it during the day and read it.

"Fine," he sighed dejectedly before he turned and walked out of the room. He wasn't sure if Harvey would find the file he had left on his desk, but he hoped he would. And he had enough faith in his boss that he knew if Harvey did read the file he would take Spencer's case. He would have to. He walked out of Harvey's glass office and nodded at Donna before heading back to his desk with the other associates. Once he got to his desk he opened a drawer and pulled out his cell phone, he scrolled through his contacts until he found her name and started a new text. _I got the file to him. If he doesn't take your case I will find someone else in the office, if that doesn't work I will defend you myself._

He meant what he had said, but he hoped that it would not come to that. He had had trouble with housing court, he didn't want to think about what would happen to him in divorce court. But Spencer was important to him and he hoped that Harvey would realize that and take her case. Harvey did care about him after all, even though the older man would never admit it. Mike knew that he wasn't as hard as he tried to appear. The young associate smiled at that thought before he turned to the bylaws in front of him and started to read, mentally preparing for the meeting.

-.-.-.-.-

Harvey sat back down in his seat once his associate left and looked around his office, trying to find something to do. He was about to stand back up and go bother Louis when he noticed a blue folder that was sitting on his desk. It must have been left over from the files that he had meant to give to Mike, but when he reached for it Harvey remembered that the folders he had given Mike had been tan. This folder had not been in his office when his associate came in to beg him to take his friend's case. Harvey shook his head at Mike's attempt to fool him, a part of him wanted to simply throw the folder into his trashcan and forget about its existence, but a larger part of him wanted to open it and see what the big deal was about. It wasn't that he cared about Mike's feelings or desires, but he was curious about why Mike cared so much. Maybe the girl was hot ... that thought stopped Harvey in his tracks. _Was Ross even capable of noticing that a girl was attractive?_ he found himself wondering. Harvey shook his head with a chuckle and opened the folder, he was just going to take a peak and see why Mike cared about this girl and this case as much as he did.

The words on the page in front of Harvey were not what he had expected. As he flipped through the pages inside the folder he realized that almost every one of them was a hospital report. They were from multiple hospitals throughout the states of New York and New Jersey. And each one seemed worse than the last. Harvey swallowed thickly when certain words jumped out at him. _Broken ribs_ was one of them, ribs ... as in more than once._ Lacerations_ was another one. That mean that she had been cut right? _Bruising_, that one didn't seem so bad, he was okay with that one. _Stitches_, _broken radius_, _fractured tibia_, _concussion_, _amnesia_, _underweight_, _malnourished_, _rape_, _burns_. Harvey stared at the reports laid out on his desk in front of him, it seemed that the only thing this woman had not injured was her face. After the hospital reports there were pictures of all of the injuries, Harvey stopped flipping through those after he realized he could make out the shape of a size 10 dress shoe on the woman's back, that must have been the injured spine from the New York Downtown Hospital, Harvey thought, closing the file and preparing to bring it back to Michael with a lecture about how the associate should not try to disgust his boss, especially when Harvey was having such a bad day anyway. But as he closed the file the name on the outside of the folder caught his attention and he changed his mind.

"Donna," Harvey barked as he leaned back in his chair, Jessica was going to be pissed about his decision, but Harvey didn't care. They didn't call him a _gunslinger_ for nothing, after all. And after all the work Harvey had put in at Pearson Harden, Harvey felt that he deserved to do what he wanted. "Get me Spencer Avery on the phone. Now." He did not have to look up from the name on the blue folder in front of him to know that his order was being followed. Donna had probably had her hand on the phone the moment he said her name, and the woman in this file would be standing in his office in less than an hour if Harvey Spector had anything to say about it.

-.-.-.-.-

Mike was on his computer, doing a bit of extra research on their afternoon meeting with a potential client when he heard the distinct sound of a woman walking down the hallway. He could tell that it was a woman because of the click of her heels on the floor. What made him nervous was that it must have been Jessica, because with every step she took closer to his desk the quieter the rest of the associates got. But when he looked up he was surprised to see his friend Spencer smiling down at him. "Mikey," the brunette said with an easy, friendly smile, "You better be careful, someone might mistake you for a real lawyer."

Mike smiled, "Not in this tie," he said, picking at his tie that Harvey had already told him was too skinny at least three times that day. He made a mental note to remember to change the tie before their afternoon meeting. "What are you doing here?" he asked, confused as to why one of his best friends since high school was standing in front of his desk. "And how did you know I was here?"

Spencer shrugged and walked around the cubicle walls surround his desk before sitting down on the corner of his desk. "I don't know what I'm doing here, to be honest," she said softly. "About twenty minutes ago I got a call from Mr. Spector's secretary asking me to meet him and his associate Mike Ross, that's you, at Pearson Harden as soon as possible. I was already in the neighborhood, so to speak, so I told her I could be here in twenty minutes and ... here I am. I wasn't sure where to go once I got here so I asked someone where to find you and they sent me here."

"Harvey called you?" Mike asked, sitting up a bit straighter in his chair at the mention of his boss. Had Harvey decided to take her case. "Why?"

Spencer shrugged her slender shoulders, wincing a bit at the movement. Mike leaned forward, about to ask her what was wrong but she shook her head and waved his concern away as if her pain didn't matter. "Hell if I know," she said softly.

"I've always loved a beautiful woman with a dirty mouth," Harvey said with his most charming smile as he walked toward the pair, throwing Spencer's file down on Mike's desk. "Mrs. Avery? Harvey Spector," he added, introducing himself as he held out his hand to the slender woman in front of him.

Spencer closed her eyes, taking a deep, calming breath before she opened them and placed her small hand inside Harvey's larger one. "Mr. Spector," she said, trying to smile, Mike frowned when he realized that her smile did not reach her bright green, expressive eyes. "Nice to meet you, and please, call me Spencer. If everything turns out the way I want it to, Avery will not be my last name for much longer."

"Of course," Harvey said with an easy smile. "If you would follow me to my office, we can all discuss your case ... Spencer." Spencer nodded and stood up off of Mike's desk. She smoothed out her knee length pencil skirt and waited, staring at Mike expectantly until he stood up too. She reached out and gently grasped Mike's hand for a moment before she let go and followed Harvey to his office. Mike followed behind quietly until they had reached the glass doors outside of Harvey's office. Harvey held the doors open for Spencer and Mike waited until she was slightly out of earshot before he asked the question he had been dying to ask since Harvey had shown up at his cubicle.

"What made you decide to take her case?" he hissed as he began to walk through the door.

"You failed to mention that your friend was getting abused," Harvey whispered, his brown eyes studying the woman in front of him with an intense interest. "And that her abusive husband is the son of a New York Senator." Mike nodded, but as he watched Harvey follow Spencer into his office he began to wonder if he should have gotten Harvey involved at all. For some reason he had a feeling that this was all going to end badly.

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><p>And that's all folks!<br>I promise that it gets good ... and following chapters will be longer.  
>Let me know what you think (Hopefully good things!)<br>Reviews = Love.  
>Addison.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable characters. Spencer Avery, however is mine, I'm kind of proud to say that! I would really love to say that Harvey Spector was mine too though... is it alright that I am this much in love with a fictional character?

Anyway, special shout out to: _TwiCloiser89: _I'm so glad that you "must have more!" and I hope that you enjoy this chapter!

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><p>"Wise men say only fools rush in<br>but I can't help, falling in love with you."  
>Elvis<p>

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><p>"So the first thing we are going to do is go over the facts," Harvey said simply as he sat down in a seat across the table from Spencer's spot on the couch. He nodded when Mike walked further into the room and took a seat next to the young woman. As much as he said that he was a great lawyer without caring about his clients he would admit that Spencer's case was going to be a difficult one and that she would need all of the support she could get. Mike was good at giving support so that was perfect. "Some of these questions are going to be difficult," he added, "but I need you to answer them as honestly and precisely as possible."<p>

Mike nodded, reaching out and lightly grasping Spencer's hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Your answers will help us gain a better understanding of your case and how to best go about fighting it in court. Okay?" Spencer nodded her understanding, her lips in a tight line as she turned to look at Harvey, her bright green eyes alert as she waited for his first question. Harvey nodded when he noted the fierce, steely look in the young woman's eyes. She was not going to back down from this divorce, that was good, the weak ones were always the hardest because their lawyer was always left wondering when they were going to change their minds. It was clear that Spencer would not be changing hers. He liked that.

"Okay," Harvey said slowly, unsure why he was taking so long to make sure that Spencer was ready to answer his questions. This was a delicate situation, but John Avery's lawyers weren't going to take the time to be concerned about Spencer's feelings and she needed to be prepared for that. "Let's start with when was the last time he touched you in a violent way?"

"This morning," Spencer said with a voice devoid of all emotion. Harvey nodded and opened up a legal pad, making note of her answer before he looked back at her, silently asking for more details. "At breakfast," Spencer said, trying not to look at Mike when she heard her friend gasp, "the divorce papers were served this morning. He hadn't been expecting them."

"You had them served when you were alone with him?" Mike asked, glancing at his friend with concern evident in his eyes. "Why didn't you have them wait until you were out in public and he wouldn't be able to do anything to you?"

"Well it's not like I really had a choice when they were served," Spencer said, withdrawing her hand from Mike's and clasping both of her hands together in her lap. "Although I hoped that he would be in public when he received them," she added, leaning forward and studying her hands. "It would have embarrassed him and also forced him to keep his anger in check. I think he realized that had been my plan all along because this morning was worse than usual."

"What did he do to you?" Harvey asked as he watched his young associate clench his fists in anger. "When he found out that you had filed for divorce?"

"He slapped me around, if that's what you're asking," Spencer answered, her eyes darkening in anger. Harvey sent her a look that clearly stated that he was asking for specifics and she nodded. If he wanted specifics she would not disappoint him. With one brief, almost apologetic look at Mike she started explaining what had happened to her that morning. "He backhanded me across the face so hard that I was knocked out of my chair," she said softly, turning her head to the side so that the two men could make out the faint outline of a hand print across her face. "You'd be surprised at how well expensive make-up covers bruises up," she said with a grim smile before she continued. "He kicked me five to ten times in the stomach, I stopped counting once I heard the first rib crack."

"Didn't you try to get away?" Mike asked, staring at his friend as if he did not know her at all.

"My ribs were in pain," Spencer snapped, defending herself, the last thing she wanted was for Mike to think she was weak. "I couldn't breath very well, let alone stand up. The only option I had was to try to roll away from him. And I will take rib damage over spinal damage any day. I didn't want to give him a chance to kick me in the spine again. Once he was done kicking me he pulled me up by my hair and threatened to try to drown me in the bathtub if I didn't take back this divorce by the end of the day."

"And then?" Harvey asked, trying not to let the woman see that her story had affected him. He was the best closer in the city after all. Things like this were not supposed to surprise him or disgust him. But as he looked at the young, small woman in front of him he had to fight back the urge to vomit when he thought of the man who had been using her as his punching bag for the last four years.

"And then he let go of me," Spencer said with a shrug. "He kissed me on the forehead, told me to have a good day, and reminded me to cover up the bruise on my face before I left the house." Mike growled at her statement, disgusted that John Avery could inflict that kind of damage on his best friend and then just kiss her on the forehead and go about his day as if it didn't matter. "But I'm not going to back down," Spencer said, shaking her head as her fists clenched in anger, it wasn't until her shoulders began to shake and she winced in pain at the movement that she began to calm down. "I am tired of being weak and defenseless and since killing him in his sleep would land me in jail this is the only other way out of this hell for me."

Harvey nodded and made some more notes on his notepad. He opened his mouth, preparing to ask her another question when Mike interrupted him before he had even found his voice. "Did you go to the hospital for your ribs?" the young man asked, glancing down at where his friend's ribs would be before lifting his concerned gaze back to her face. His eyes scanned over her face, hoping that her answer would be an affirmative one.

Spencer shook her head. "No Mikey," she said softly. "I've had enough broken ribs to know what they feel like and to know that there's really nothing that a hospital can do about them besides wrapping them and giving you painkillers. John has always made sure that there were more than enough painkillers in our house and I've gotten quite adept at wrapping my own ribs over the last few years."

"But there could be internal damage," Mike argued. "Your ribs could have punctured an organ and you could be bleeding to death as we speak and have no idea."

Spencer smiled at her friend, unclasping her hands so that she could reach out and gently take Mike's hand in her own smaller ones. "I've done the research, Mike," she said softly. "If the ribs had punctured an organ I would already be dead. So I'm going to go on the assumption that I'm fine." With that she turned back to Harvey, an expectant look on her tight, pained face. "What's your next question, Mr. Spector?" she asked.

"When was the first time your husband hit you?" Harvey asked softly, not entirely sure if he wanted to know the answer, but he knew that he needed it to help him build the case. He was beginning to understand why Mike had been so adamant about Harvey taking Spencer's case. It was hard to spend more than a few moments with this strong, yet fragile, woman and not feel this innate need to protect her.

"The first night of our honeymoon," Spencer said with a nod, her green eyes turning slightly hazy as she traveled back to that night. "We hadn't even been married for twenty-four hours."

"What happened?" Harvey asked softly, not wanting to upset the woman in front of him but needing to know the answer.

Spencer scoffed and looked away from him, shaking her head. She tried to pull her hand out of Mike's grasp but the young man shook his head and squeezed her hand tightly, silently telling her that he did not plan to let go of her hand for the rest of the meeting. She sighed and opened her mouth to answer, refusing to meet either man's intense gaze. "He caught me _looking at another man_," she said, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the last four words of her statement. "He needed to _teach me a lesson_." There was that sarcastic emphasis again. Her phrase disgusted Harvey and broke Mike's heart. "The gist of the lesson was that I was his and his alone," Spencer said with a shrug, "and if I broke any of his rules again or did anything that made him look bad or stupid my punishment would result in a cast, stitches, or burn wrappings. In the case of our honeymoon night it resulted in thirteen stitches across my arm from the mirror he threw me into that broke on contact and several cigarette burns on my lower back." Harvey bit his lip to keep from cursing in response to Spencer's story. She shook her head again, another grim smile gracing her lips. "Once I had gotten the stitches he brought me back to the hotel room, carried me to the bed and _made love to me_ before falling asleep."

Mike growled in anger at her story and gripped her hand harder as he turned to look at her with pained eyes. "Why didn't you tell me about this when you got back?" he asked, his voice sounded as pained as his eyes looked. Harvey glanced at the younger man and could tell that his associate was already blaming himself for not noticing the warning signs that his friend's marriage was not as good as it seemed to the outside world.

"He told me that it was a one time thing the next morning," Spencer stated, turning to her friend, her eyes begging him to understand. "He had just lost his temper and that it would never happen again. In the back of my mind I should have known that I couldn't trust him, I probably did to be honest, but part of me wanted to believe him. Part of me wanted to continue thinking of him as the sweet guy he had been when I met him in college. I wasn't ready to ruin that picture of him yet."

"But once you realized that he was lying. That he wasn't that great guy you had dated and that you were actually in danger you should have come to me," Mike said, squeezing her small hand so tightly that it started to turn purple. "I could have helped you. I could have beat him up or helped you run away from him. You didn't need to stay in an abusive relationship for four years, I would have found a way to get you out of it!"

"Mike," Harvey said in a warning tone, trying to subtly tell his associate that he needed to calm down and let go of Spencer's hand. She may have been one of Mike's best friends, but she was also a client, and Mike was taking her experience too personally. They would not be able to help her if Mike kept responding to her statements like that.

"I was scared and ashamed, okay?" Spencer asked, looking up and glancing between her best friend and her new lawyer with watery green eyes. Her eyes were filled with tears but she refused to let them fall as she explained. "I was afraid that you wouldn't believe me if I told you and that John would find out and punish me for making him look bad." Mike opened his mouth to argue and tell her that he would never have not believed her, but Spencer shook her head and kept going. "And even if you would have believed me I was ashamed that I was weak enough to let him hit me in the first place. I didn't want you to think badly of me because you knew."

Harvey nodded, he could almost understand the young woman's reasoning. He glanced between his client and his associate before he sighed. The former looked as though she was about to break at any moment, and if there was one thing that Harvey Spector never wanted to deal with it was a crying woman. The latter was still gripping the woman's hand and he looked as though her grasp on his hand was the only thing keeping him from storming out of the office to find John Avery and murder him with his own bare hands. Harvey had more questions for Spencer, but he knew that they were going to get nowhere that afternoon, she was too upset and Harvey needed to prepare for his meeting with his afternoon client anyway. So instead he nodded again and gave Spencer a soft, comforting smile. "Thank you, Spencer," he said softly, standing up and holding his hand out to her to help her off his couch. "That is all for today, if you leave your cell phone number with Donna on your way out I will call to schedule a second appointment with you for later in the week." Spencer nodded and placed her free hand in Harvey's, he pulled her up and bit back a smile when she yanked Mike up with her, he still had yet to let go of her hand. But he had at least loosened her grip so her small hand was no longer a concerning shade of purple.

"Thank you, Mr. Spector," Spencer said once she was standing up, she quickly dropped his hand and looked around his office as if she was looking for her abusive husband, ready to punish her for touching another man.

"Do you have somewhere to go tonight?" Harvey asked, sounding more concerned for the young woman than he had meant to. Mike's head snapped up as he looked at Harvey with his eyebrows raised in surprise.

Spencer nodded, "Umm, John leaves for a business trip this afternoon and he won't be back for at least a week. So that will give me some time to pack up my stuff and find a new place to live. I just have to stay away from the house until five. I'll be fine until then, I don't mind just hanging out in the city. I've always loved this city," she added, biting her lip in embarrassment to the lame ending of her statement.

Harvey nodded before turning to look at Mike. "Go with her," he said to his associate. Mike opened his mouth to argue but Harvey held up his hand, silently cutting the young man off before he could even start. "I am perfectly capable of handling a perspective client without you, I've been doing it for years. Besides, you're so upset now that if I send her off on her own all you're going to do is mope around the office for the rest of the afternoon. You're a better use to me making sure she is safe than staying here glaring at everyone."

Mike nodded and Spencer smiled at Harvey for a moment before she grabbed her purse. "Thank you," she said again, a soft smile that didn't quite look real gracing her lips.

Harvey nodded before turning to Mike. "Just make sure to get your research from this morning to me before you leave," he said, his eyes softening as he turned back to Spencer to wave as the two walked out of his office. He remained standing in the middle of the office and watched as Mike left Spencer at Donna's desk before he ran off to his own desk to get the research he had done. Spencer looked after him for a moment or two, smiling softly before she turned to the red-headed assistant at the desk in front of her and began to give the woman her cell phone number. Harvey remained standing until Mike had delivered the research and files and then left the office, gently grabbing Spencer's hand and pulling her toward the elevator.

Only once the doors had hissed closed behind the two friends did Harvey throw himself down in his chair and cover his eyes with a shaky hand. It had been a while since a client had gotten to him the way Spencer did and Harvey would be the first to admit that this very feeling was the exact reason that he did not let himself care about the clients.

Caring about clients did not help a lawyer win their case, it just caused the lawyer more stress because he had to worry about how his actions would affect the client.

And as much as he hated to admit it, Harvey knew that already, he cared about what would happen to the young woman who had just left his office.

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><p>And that's all folks!<br>I hope you enjoyed this chapter.  
>(It was a hard one to write to be honest, I had a hard time conveying the way Spencer felt ... I don't want her to seem weak because she's not, but I want her to portray a certain kind of helplessness without being annoying. Does that make any sense?)<br>Well review and let me know if that makes sense/if I succeeded.  
>Reviews = Love.<br>Addison.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Suits or any of the recognizable characters... I'd love to own Harvey Spector though if that can be arranged.

P.S. Did anyone else almost feel bad for Louis last night? Because I did... up until the end that is...

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><p><em>"Wise men say only fools rush in<br>But I can't help, falling in love with you."  
>-Elvis<em>

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><p>The first thing Mike Ross did when he and Spencer left Pearson Hardman was to decide that he was going to take Spencer out to lunch. He highly doubted that she had eaten that morning and from the looks of it she hadn't eaten in a while. He shook his head, biting back a lecture about how she should have taken better care of herself. He knew that she knew she should have and he also knew that right now what she really needed was a friend, someone to tell her everything was okay, not a lecture that made it seem as if her best friend was disappointed with her. And honestly, he wasn't disappointed with her; sure it had taken her four years to finally decide enough was enough, but at least she was finally taking a stand. She was finally fighting the battle. "What?" Spencer asked, watching the way Mike seemed to be studying her, a small smile resting on his lips.<p>

Mike shook his head and wrapped his arm around Spencer's shoulders, pulling her closer to his body. "Nothing," he said, leaning down so that he could press a kiss to the top of her head. "I was just wondering if you were hungry." Spencer knew that that was a lie, but she decided she wasn't going to push it. If Mike wanted to keep what he was really thinking from her she would let him, she had a feeling that he was keeping it from her to keep her from being upset anyway, so she would allow it. She nodded in response to his statement and Mike smiled a real smile. "I should have known you were," he said, shaking his head. "You were always hungry in high school. Let's go get pizza."

"And beer?" Spencer asked, it was only one in the afternoon, but she had had a hard day and she felt as though she deserved a beer.

Mike smiled at her and nodded. "And beer," he said, shaking his head. "You alcoholic," he added jokingly. Spencer laughed and reached her left hand out, gently pushing him in the side and causing him to stumble because he was caught of guard. "Hey!" Mike chuckled as he began to walk in a straight line again. He laughed when he saw the almost happy look on his friend's face. They hadn't seen each other all too often since she had gotten married and even when they did see each other she had never looked truly happy. It was refreshing to see her look happy now. It was as though all she had needed was to tell someone the truth about what was going in her life and a weight was lifted off her shoulders. At that moment Mike did not care that bringing her to Harvey might end up badly, he would do it again just to see Spencer look happy again.

"I've missed you, Mikey," Spencer said softly, surprising Mike by voicing the same thought he was thinking. "Like a lot. I've missed this. You know, just hanging out and having fun. You understand me in a way no one else does. And I've missed that. Can you promise me something?" Mike nodded, silently vowing that he could promise the woman next to him anything. "Promise me you will never let me lose you again?"

"You never lost me to begin with, Spence," he said softly as he turned a corner, leading her toward his favorite pizza place in the city. "And you never will, you don't need to worry about that. I'm staying right here." Spencer nodded, but she didn't look like she quite believed him. Mike stared down at her before he shook his head. "To be honest I felt like I lost you," he said softly. Spencer looked up at him with wide, confused eyes. Mike sighed, "You were my best friend in high school," he said softly, trying to find a way to say this without hurting her feelings. "And then you met John, you got married way too fast and then you just kind of disappeared. I'd see you every once in a while, but something always seemed wrong and you never wanted to talk about it. That hurt. I thought you didn't need me anymore."

"I will always need you, Mike," Spencer said softly, shaking her head in protest to Mike's statement. "Even when I was staying away from you I needed you." Mike stared at her, his eyes scanning over her face, silently asking her why she hadn't told him about her problems at home if she had truly needed him. "I didn't want you to get hurt, Mike," she said softly. "I knew that if I told you that you might try to do something stupid like beat John up or try to have him arrested. He's got these ... goons is the best word I can think of, and they _take care of problems_ like you for him. I didn't want you to do anything rash and then be _taken care of_. It was better for you if I stayed away from you."

"But I wasn't the one who needed to be protected," Mike argued softly as he led her into the grimy looking pizza parlor. "And I would have found a way to protect you."

"I know you would have," Spencer admitted, staring down at her feet in shame. "But for a while I thought I could take care of myself. I needed to be able to take care of myself. I wasn't ready to admit how weak I really was." Mike stared at her for a moment before he shook his head and slipped a hand under her chin, gently forcing her face up until she was looking at him.

"You. Were. Not. Weak," he said, making each word it's own sentence, hoping that she would hear his conviction behind the words. "You were strong, so much stronger than you needed to be. Asking for help does not make you weak, it just means that you are smart enough to realize that you can't do something on your own."

Spencer gave him a small grim smile before allowing her eyes to dart away from her friend's intense gaze. "Then I've been pretty stupid for a long time," she said softly before pulling her chin out of Mike's grasp. Mike wanted to contradict her, to tell her that he had not meant that she was stupid, but he could see that she was ready to be done with that conversation. So instead he silently shook his head and gestured toward the menu on the wall.

"I know this place looks kind of gross," he said simply, "but I promise you that it is the best pizza in the city." Spencer nodded at him, silently thanking him for changing the subject before she walked up to the cashier to place her order. Two slices of the supreme pizza. Mike smiled, glad that she had ordered two slices, the slices at this place were huge and he was going to make sure that they did not leave until she had eaten every bite of her pizza. He ordered the same thing and shook his head when Spencer tried to take out her wallet at the cash register. "I'm taking you out to lunch, Spence," he said with a smile. "As the invited member of our party you are not expected to pay."

"But -" Spencer started, but Mike cut her off with a wave of his hand as he handed over a ten dollar bill, telling the cashier that he did not need any change.

"You're my client now, Spencer," he said with a sneaky smile. "If I wanted to I could bill this lunch to the firm and write it off as an attempt to woo you."

"You're wooing me are you?" Spencer asked playfully as she followed Mike to a table by the window so that they could watch what was going on out on the busy street outside of the parlor. Mike quickly walked to the drink machine and filled two cups with ice and coke before walking back to the table. Spencer smiled when he placed one of the cups in front of her. "Is that what a first year associate does?" she asked after taking a sip of her coke, "Wooing clients and all of that?"

"It's a little bit about wooing," Mike said with a nod and a smile. "But mostly I do research and I leave the wooing to Harvey. He's better at it than I am."

"He was quite charming this afternoon," Spencer admitted, taking another sip of her coke. "Nothing like the uncaring grump you had led me to expect." Mike nodded silently thinking back to their meeting as a waitress brought their pizza to the table. Harvey had surprised Mike that afternoon too. He had always had a feeling that Harvey's _I don't care_ attitude had been bullshit, but he had never expected Harvey too look at Spencer with the caring look in his eyes like he had done that afternoon. It was that one look that had convinced Mike that they were going to win the case - Harvey cared enough about Spencer that he was going to make sure of that much.

-.-.-.-.-

"I still can't believe it," Spencer said with a giggle later that afternoon. She and Mike were sitting on the couch in his apartment, they had been talking about the old days and their friends from high school when Mike had finally told her how he had started working for Harvey Spector. "I mean, I guess in the back of my mind I knew there was no way that you went to law school since you were expelled during undergrad, but I never expected this!" Mike glanced at her, worried that she was going to judge him or be disappointed at him, but the wide grin on her face told him just the opposite. "You're kind of a badass, Mikey," she said softly, reaching out and softly cuffing his jaw with her fist.

"Why do you sound so surprised, huh?" Mike asked, pretending to take offense in her statement. "I was a badass in high school too." Spencer scoffed, and Mike started laughing. He had been the complete opposite of a badass. He had been the kid who was more likely to spend his weekend in the library tutoring kids for free than having fun on his days off from school. It was actually thanks to Spencer and Trevor that Mike could honestly say that he had had any fun in high school. Although, Trevor's brand of fun had usually ended up getting Mike in trouble. Mike smiled at the woman sitting next to him when he came to a realization that, if he was being honest with himself, he had always known.

"What?" Spencer asked, suspicious of the way Mike was looking at her. "What is running through your mind, Ross?"

"You're my best friend, Spence," Mike said as if that was a complete surprise to him. Spencer rolled her eyes, looking at Mike with her eyebrows raised, clearly thinking that the boy in front of her was an idiot. Mike shook his head, "You really are. I always thought that Trevor was my best friend, but it's you. It's always been you. If Trevor had truly cared about me he would never have convinced me to do things that would get me in trouble. But you ... you always took care of me, watched out for me, kept me out of trouble. You were the one who honestly cared about me. You were my best friend, not him."

Spencer smiled at him before she shifted her position on the couch so that her back was leaning against Mike's chest. She then took Mike's arms and wrapped them around herself, forcing him to hug her not that he considered it much of a chore. "It took you this long to figure that out?" she asked him, tilting her head back so that she could look him in the eye. "And you call yourself a genius," she scoffed.

Mike smiled down at her and leaned his head down so that he could place a soft kiss on her head. "You should take a nap," he said softly, reaching up to gently brush some hair out of her eyes. "You don't look like you've gotten a whole lot of sleep lately."

"That would be because I haven't," Spencer said with a shrug. "I don't sleep well when he's there and I don't sleep well when he's gone."

Mike nodded, sighing when he looked at the dark circles under her eyes. "Well, you can sleep well now," he said softly, running one of his hands through her long hair. "Because he's not going to hurt you anymore."

Spencer shook her head, struggling to keep her eyes open. It was easier for her to pretend she wasn't tired when the entire conversation did not focus around the fact that she hadn't slept. "It's not even that," she said softly, shaking her head again. "When he was there I was too nervous to sleep because I didn't like him being that close, but when he wasn't there I was nervous because I didn't know when he was going to come back or what kind of mood he was going to be in. But most of all ... I was afraid of waking up alone, which makes no sense considering that I was probably safest when he wasn't around."

Mike leaned over so that his blue eyes could meet Spencer's green ones. "You have nothing to worry about," he said, his voice heavy with conviction. "He's not going to show up when you're napping and you're not going to wake up alone. I will be right here, I'm not going anywhere. I promise." Spencer looked up at him for a moment before she nodded and snuggled closer to Mike's chest. Mike nodded and continued to silently run his fingers through Spencer's long brown hair until her breathing had evened out, signifying that she had finally fallen asleep. Mike bent his head down, pressing a soft kiss onto the top of her head. "I love you Spence," he whispered before he continued to brush her hair with his fingers.

He didn't know how long he stared down at her finally peaceful face before he finally fell asleep as well. But he did know that in the minutes before he fell asleep he was filled with more anger than he had ever felt in his life. He was angrier at John Avery than he had ever been at Trevor after the botched drug deal, or at Harvey when he was being an asshole. He was livid ... _livid _that was a word that Mike had never thought of before, but it definitely summed up how he felt about the son of a bitch who had broken his friend so badly that she was afraid to fall asleep. He running his fingers through her hair when he realized they were shaking in anger. He tried to calm himself down, he tried to think of what Harvey would say about this situation. He could picture the senior partner in his head as if the older man were standing in the middle of his living room, not only judging him for the general state of crappiness his apartment was in, but also for how involved Mike had let himself get. "She doesn't need an angry lawyer," vision Harvey was saying. "She needs a good one with a clear head that can win her case."

Mike nodded, he would wait until after they had won the case to get angry. Until then he would be clear-headed and calm. And then once Harvey had successfully put John Avery behind bars Mike would visit him in jail just so that he could punch the bastard in the face and give him a taste of his own, what was the word Spencer had used ... _punishment_? Yeah, punishment. And with that happy thought in his head Mike had finally been able to fall asleep.

He didn't sleep for long though. He was woken up shortly after he had closed his eyes, but at first he had no idea what had woken him up. He glanced at the clock on his cable box and noticed that it was almost five in the afternoon. But that gave him no hint as to why he had woken up with such a sudden start. And then he felt it, Spencer quivering in his arms. He glanced down and saw that his friend was crying in her sleep, gripping his arm as if it were her lifeline. "Spencer?" he asked softly, calmly, he was trying not to frighten her or upset her anymore than she already was.

"Please," she whispered in her sleep, flinching away from Mike's chest. "Just leave me alone."

"Spencer," Mike said again, gently freeing his arm from her grasp if only so that he could reach out and cup her face in between both of his hands. "It's just me, it's just Mike. I need you to wake up, Spence. You're just having a bad dream. Wake up."

Spencer's eyes opened, revealing a pair of timid, scared, watery green eyes. "Mike," she whispered, her voice cracking in a way that Mike would never be able to forget, no matter how hard he tried. Spencer took a deep calming breath and buried her head in his chest, fisting his t-shirt in her hands as if she was afraid that he was going to pull away from her.

"I'm right here," Mike said softly, running his hands up and down her back while trying to calm her down. "Don't worry. What's going on in your head? Talk to me."

Spencer sobbed for a minute or two more before she pulled away from Mike, wiping her eyes and trying to look as composed as possible. "I'm sorry," she said softly, looking embarrassed at her outburst. She tried to climb out of Mike's lap, but he wouldn't let her. She sighed before turning around to look at her friend. "What do you want from me, Mike?" she asked him, sounding deflated and weaker than she wanted to sound.

"It's okay, you know," Mike said softly, looking into his friend's fear filled eyes. "To not always be in control. To be afraid, that's okay. Everyone has those moments and if you ask me you deserve to have one now. No one's going to judge you for crying about this ... you've been through a traumatic couple of years and it's not over yet, he's not going to make this easy for you. It's okay to cry."

Spencer stared at him for a few moments before she shook her head. Mike wasn't sure what he had expected from her after his statement but as he watched her struggle to stand up on her heels ... even though she had looked relaxed that afternoon she had not changed out of her heels and pencil skirt, he realized that this is what he should have expected. Spencer had always wanted to seem strong, and she was a strong woman. But she had always been wrong about one thing, even the strongest women had their moments of weakness, that didn't make them any less strong, it simply made them seem more real. Mike wanted to teach that to Spencer, but he could tell by the set of her lips that now was not the time to do so.

"You could stay here you know," he said softly as he watched her reach for her purse. "For the night, if you're afraid of going home alone."

"I'm not afraid of going home alone," she said softly, shaking her head and not making eye contact with her best friend. She didn't need him to be able to tell she was lying to him. "It's after five, he's gone. I need to be able to start packing up my stuff anyway." Mike nodded silently, standing up and walking with her to the door of his apartment. She turned around to look up at him when she reached the door. "Thank you for the offer though," she said, tilting her head up so that she could place a soft kiss on his cheek. "Thank you for everything," she added in an even softer tone.

Mike nodded and watched her open the door. As she stepped out into the hallway he reached out and gently grabbed on to her hand. She turned around to look at him, surprise evident in her green eyes, she thought he was going to ask her to stay again and to be honest she didn't know if she would be able to say no this time. But Mike had a different request. "Just call me," he pleaded softly, "if something happens, if something feels wrong, if you get scared. Call me?" He looked at his friend's face, concerned eyes scanning ever centimeter of it, pausing on the bruise on her cheek. "Please?" he added, sounding almost broken.

Spencer nodded, "I promise," she said, giving his hand a soft squeeze before she let go of it. He watched her walk down the hallway to the stair and once she was out of sight he walked to his window that faced the road outside of the building so that he could make sure that she made it safely into a cab. He watched her stick her hand up in the air and he smiled when three cabs stopped, one of them with extremely screechy brakes, each of them hoping she would be their fare. She picked one and opened the back door, she turned to look up at his apartment and waved at him before she slipped into the back seat. Mike sighed, trying to swallow the nervous feeling he had now that she was no longer within sight.

But no matter what he did, the feeling did not go away.

* * *

><p>And that's all folks!<br>I hope you liked it! There was very little Harvey in this one, but there will be a good deal of him in the next one.  
>Anyway, please review to let me know what you thought.<br>Reviews = Love.  
>And I like love... makes me update faster... just saying.<br>Anyway... I'm out.  
>- Addison.<p> 


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